Transformation
by Ajo Writes
Summary: Cobb can extract a secret idea. He can even implant a new idea. But does he have what it takes to transform an existing one?
1. A Mysterious Call

CHAPTER 1: A Mysterious Call

"James! Philipa! Time for school!"

"Coming, Dad!" James yelled as he jumped down the wooden porch steps.

"Come on," said Cobb as his two kids-now teens-piled into the car. "Don't wanna be late for the first day, do you?"

"It's just senior year. No one really cares anymore," replied Philipa.

"Well, it's James' first day of high school, and I wouldn't want him to miss a single minute of it. _And_ you guys are making me late for work."

James rolled his eyes. Cobb's sleek black sedan rolled up towards the school, where hundreds of pubescent teens milled about, either jittering anxiously or screaming in delight at the sight of their friends after the long summer break.

James and Philipa bid their father goodbye, rather unceremoniously at that; then again, they were just like any other adolescents who refused to be caught sight with their dad. Deep down, Cobb knew that they loved him as much as he loved them. As Cobb watched them walk away, backs turned, he couldn't help but think back to the time where he had only been able to see their backs and nothing more. But that had been ten years ago. Now Philipa and James were seventeen and fourteen, and ever since the job for Saito had let Cobb return home with all charges dropped, he hadn't made any more trips away from reality. The dark times with Mal in limbo (and twice for that matter) were enough to keep him away, despite the strong craving to go back under and build like crazy now that her projection was gone from his mind.

Before he knew it, Cobb was in his office at work: Southgate Security, a private security firm. There was no dream business done here. Cobb had found it fitting to continue working in security, but now he protected his clients from what he viewed as relatively mundane threats. He still worked for large corporations, but now protected the most powerful members from murder, theft, and sometimes cyber attacks. There was always the occasional celebrity to be shielded from aggressive paparazzi and overzealous fans, and it often humored Cobb to think of these as just real-life versions of vicious subconscious projections converging on the dreamer.

After ten years with Southgate, he had managed to work his way up to a respectable position. His personal office was spacious and modern, a construction of metal and black and glass with floor to ceiling windows overlooking a magnificent view of Los Angeles, the renowned Hollywood sign just visible in the distance. Cobb straightened his tie and sat down at his polished desk. He was the director of the department called "Preemptive Protection," where he met with clients to foresee any potential risks and discuss security plans. Being head of the department, Cobb only dealt with the trickiest and most difficult of cases. His secretary had already placed today's list of client meetings complete with notes on his desk in a neat black leather folder. He was just about to open it as the phone rang. It was the secretary's voice.

"Good morning, Mr. Cobb. There's someone calling from an unknown number on a secure line demanding to speak to you. Wouldn't give me a name, and he seemed pretty adamant. Should I put him through?"

Cobb sighed. Sometimes clients thought they were so clever like that, calling from random locations and refusing to reveal their identities.

"Put him through. I'll deal with it."

_Beep_.

"So," started Cobb into the receiver, "my secretary tells me you won't say who you are. Think you're being sneaky, huh?"

A raspy, accented voice replied calmly and quietly.

"Is that how you speak to all your clients, Mr. Cobb?" A suspenseful pause. "I'm calling because I believe we have a mutual friend."

"Oh? And who exactly would that be?" asked Cobb, nonchalant.

The caller gave a soft laugh.

"That would be…. a certain man named Saito."


	2. Someone Knows

CHAPTER 2: Someone Knows

Silence. Cobb froze. The caller now had his full attention.

"What did you say?" he hissed.

"I believe you heard me very clearly, Mr. Cobb. I said Saito. Of Proclus Global, the rival of Cobal Engineering? Let's just say… Saito told me all about the little endeavor you took for him a while back into Robert Fischer's mind. He told me all about your act of… inception."

A chill ran down Cobb's spine. Could it be such a coincidence that he had just been thinking about Saito earlier in the car? There was no point in denying anything the caller had said.

"Listen, sir," Cobb said firmly, "I don't know who you are, and I don't know what you want, but I haven't spoken to Saito in years."

This much was true. The same went for the rest of the team—Arthur, Yusuf, Eames, Ariadne—after completing Saito's job, they had all disbanded and lost contact. Cobb could only guess what they were up to nowadays.

"I have a proposition for you, Mr. Cobb. A proposition of a very specific nature. I think you know what I'm referring to."

Cobb _did _miss visiting the dream world. The pure creation of being an architect, of constructing whole cities, designing elaborate mazes, and building paradoxical structures that were impossible in reality; those were the things he used to live for. And what about getting the team back together? Cobb occasionally thought of holding a reunion, but what would they all say to each other? The five of them weren't ones to just sit around and talk. They were best together in action, in the field, with a mission to accomplish.

No. Cobb had a stable life now, with his children and his job. Besides, he was out of practice. And no way was he risking entering limbo for the third time.

"Whatever it is you want, I'm not someone who can help you."

"Oh, but I believe you are, Mr. Cobb. I believe you are."


	3. In A Parisian Apartment

**If you're still reading, thanks for sticking around. I only watched Inception for the first time a week ago on the plane (four years overdue, I know) and I just loved the whole premise of it. I'll try not to let the prologue-y things go on for too long, though I do just want to go over what the team's been up to for the past ten years. The good stuff is coming up soon, I promise ;) **

**As always, reviews are appreciated, and if you like what you're reading, then please follow! Sometimes a single review is all it takes for me to know to keep working on a story. **

**And now, without further ado, chapter three...**

CHAPTER THREE: In A Parisian Apartment

Thousands of miles away, Ariadne woke with a start and looked around. She was lying on the floor of her bedroom-it appeared as if she had rolled off the bed. She quickly detached the thin tubes from her wrist and stuffed the silver briefcase under the bed. She couldn't very well let her husband find out that she was still visiting the dream world-even if it was just to test out some of her designs before she drew them out for real.

"Ari?" Nick mumbled. "Come back to bed, why don't you?"

Ariadne and Nick had met on a job. A dream-sharing job. But after Nick got hurt and nearly fell into limbo for good, the two of them promised to never go back again. That is until Ariadne realized that she could use dreams to give her the upper hand in her career as an architect. She was being commissioned almost all the time, with big corporations asking her to build new headquarters all around the world, or to design classy hotels. Hotels were Ariadne's personal favorite.

"Come on, Ari, what are you doing on the floor? You can be so silly sometimes."

"Coming," she replied with a smile. She quickly stuffed a metal chess piece under her pillow.

Nick's fingers ran through her hair, and he leaned over and gently kissed her cheek. Nick was a film director, most likely drawing from his experiences in the dream world.

"Go back to sleep, mmkay?" Ariadne whispered.

"Okay," Nick mumbled.

"Okay."


	4. Arthur & Eames

CHAPTER FOUR: Arthur &amp; Eames

"Everyone good?" yelled Eames above the sounds of the tanks and helicopters as he looked around at the military men around him.

A dozen or so men dressed in army uniforms and bulletproof jackets, each donning an impressive array of guns and knives, clustered around Eames, awaiting instruction.

"Look around," Arthur shouted, signaling at the hot and arid desert that lay all around them. "Enemy troops will come looking for us soon. They'll be out after our blood. But the difference is that we know the way out and they don't. Just remember your training, remember what you've learned, and everything is going to be fine. If anyone gets seriously hurt, we all know what to do."

Everyone on the team nodded, and they set off. Eames and Arthur stuck to the back of the group, overseeing the entire operation.

"How do you think they're going to do this time," Eames breathed to Arthur as they ran across the dirt, occasionally shooting as they went.

Arthur frowned. "Well, they need to do better than last time, otherwise the lieutenant is going to have our asses served on a platter."

"You got that right. Watch out!"

Arthur turned around just as a stray bullet hit his leg. He fell to the ground and cried out in pain. Eames stood over him, raised his gun, and shot him squarely in the head.

Arthur's eyes sprang open and he looked around at Eames and the twelve military men around him, still sound asleep and attached to the silver mechanism by a tangle of tubes. A few minutes later, each of them woke one by one, with Eames resurfacing last.

"Alright, nice training session today guys," said Eames. "Same time tomorrow."

After the soldiers had left, Arthur turned towards him. "What the fuck was that?"

"What?"

"You shouldn't have taken me out like that."

"It was your _leg_, Arthur. You wouldn't have been able to walk anyway, let alone run."

"Why was I even attacked, then? You're the one who's supposed to forge the enemy troops so that—"

Eames cut him off.

"Come on. Are you really going to argue with me on this?"

Arthur sighed, giving in. "Fine. Do you want to get a drink then?"

Eames smiled and gave Arthur a joking shove.

"Yes indeed."


	5. Distress

CHAPTER 5: Distress

Philipa was working on her college applications and James was outside shooting hoops. Cobb was just putting away the last of the dishes when the phone rang. The first thing he heard was the voice of a crying woman.

"Cobb?"

"Hello? Who is this?"

"Cobb, it's—it's me. It's Ariadne. I know, I haven't called in a while, and it's been ages since I've visited you and Philipa and James but—something's wrong, Cobb. Something's wrong."

Despite the team being disbanded, Ariadne was the one person Cobb had kept occasional contact with, exchanging a phone call every one or two years or so. They were both busy with their respective careers. The last time they had seen and spoken to each other was a year ago at Ariadne's wedding. Cobb knew that Ariadne was a strong person with a solid sense of intuition, and that something must have gone quite wrong to have her riled up like this.

"Breathe, and then tell me what happened.

"I came home after work—I was at the construction site all day, you know, getting a new project up and running, so I was a little late—but I came home after work and Nick was gone. He was just gone. And I knew something was wrong because I went into our room…. And… and there on the wall, above our bed, was the word: INCEPTION."

A chill ran down Cobb's spine.

"It was written in—it was written in blood, Cobb—probably _his_ blood—and—and I don't know what to do… I don't even know why I called you. I probably thought you'd be able to help, or something, anything… I didn't want to call the police because… well, obviously… "

Cobb's thoughts flashed back to yesterday morning. The strange phone call. Mention of inception—something he hadn't thought about or heard about for ages now. He had been one of the few friends invited to Ariadne and Nick's wedding—Cobb didn't recall seeing any of the other team members there—and he had seen how much they meant to each other. Ariadne and Nicholas Leroux: the sweetest new successful young couple. Cobb would do anything for Ariadne after what happened down there in limbo.

"Listen to me, Ariadne. I think I might know who's behind this. I'm going to get to the bottom of this for you, okay? Just—just hang in there for me. Can you do that?"

"Yeah… yeah. I can… um… I think I should go somewhere. I'll stay at a hotel or something," she replied, obviously still shaken.

"Okay. I'm going to make a few calls, and see what I can find out, alright? Just hang tight."


	6. A Name

CHAPTER SIX: A Name

Cobb sighed as he dialed the number. He seemed to be dealing with a lot of complicated calls recently. As he waited for the call to go through, he spun Mal's top impatiently on the kitchen counter. He glanced around furtively: Philipa and James still seemed to be sufficiently busying themselves. Cobb had never told them about dreamshare or how Mal had set him up for murder, and he'd rather it stay that way.

"_Moshi-moshi," _said a Japanese man sleepily over the line.

"It's Dominick Cobb."

"Mr. Cobb," the voice said, switching effortlessly to English. "I haven't heard from you in a while. Ten years in fact, and now you've forgotten about time zones and suddenly woken me up in the middle of the night? Have you been enjoying your life back home with your children in Los Angeles?"

"Yes yes, it's all very well," replied Cobb, suddenly annoyed, his tone turning menacing. "Listen, Mr. Saito. I thought after everything that we went through together on that plane, we'd at least stay some sort of friends."

"Has that not been the case?" Saito asked, bewildered.

"It doesn't look like it, Mr. Saito. Tell me, why do you have Ariadne's husband?"

"Why do I _what_?" Saito stammered. "Why would I ever do such a thing? I never even knew she was married!"

"Then _who _did you tell about inception and _why_? Whoever it is, he wants something from all of us, from the team. And he's toying with Ariadne's emotions to get it."

"I would never do such a thing. I'm honored that your team took such a risk for me, to be honest. I know it was a very difficult thing to ask. Especially with Fischer's militarized subconscious and me falling into… limbo. What is it you Americans say? Ahh… you did me a 'solid.'"

"Think, Mr. Saito. Please. Someone called me yesterday and mentioned inception. He sounded like he had a European accent… probably German. He called you a 'mutual friend.'"

"German! Yes, indeed, I do know a very particular German. But we are far from being friends. Ha, he may be one of the most cunning and clever people I know, but we are certainly not friends. His name is Wolfram Kaiser, an influential defense attorney working in Berlin. We crossed paths once, when a client of his was prosecuted for stealing from my corporation. This must have been around five years ago."

Cobb's heart leapt. A name.

"Thank you, Mr. Saito. That's all I need."

"My pleasure, Mr. Cobb. And please, do give Ariadne my deepest regards. She was extremely valuable to the operation."

"I'll send them along for you. Goodbye, Mr. Saito."

"And if you ever need anything, any strings pulled to help you with this, you know who to call."

"I'll keep that in mind."

They both hung up, and that was when Cobb noticed James at the door.

"Everything alright, Dad?"

"Yeah... yeah. I might have to leave for an unexpected business trip in a few hours. Is it okay if you guys stay with your grandparents for a bit?"

James nodded.


	7. Bait

CHAPTER SEVEN: Bait

Wolfram Kaiser lay on the luxurious couch in his office sipping some of the world's finest red wine and looking over the city of Berlin. He tried to relax, but couldn't help but glance at his watch every few minutes. Finally, someone walked into the room and approached him cautiously.

"Herr Kaiser, I am here to inform you that Mr. Nicholas Leroux has been transported from Paris onto our premises. He is not in any significant danger but after your orders… let's just say he is not in his best condition. Shall we bring him up here to speak with you?"

"No need," smiled Kaiser. "Dominick Cobb will be rushing to see me any minute now. You are dismissed."

His servant nodded, and courteously stepped out of the room.


	8. Rash

So the moral of the story is that I'm REALLY bad at keeping up with FanFic! It's been a crazy year and I just came across this again in my documents last night and thought it would be fun to start up again. Hopefully I can keep this up for a bit longer this time around, it seemed like the best one to continue out of my few existing stories (go check out the other ones too!)... and I'll probably have to watch Inception again to jog my memory...

As always, any reviews, follows, and favs are super appreciated! So use that to let me know if you want more of this. FUN STUFF: The team reunion is happening in the next chapter. Promise. Pinky swear.

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CHAPTER 8: Rash

The next morning, a sleek Boeing 747 carrying four hundred or so sleepy passengers touched down in Berlin Tegel Airport, the city's largest international airport with flights arriving from all imaginable corners of the globe. Everyone was jolted awake in their seats as the aircraft shuddered upon its eventual impact with the ground—all except for Cobb, who had been unsettled and alert for the entire long-haul journey. He had been sorting through printed files, marking maps, and reading up on Wolfram Kaiser.

As Saito had told him, Wolfram Kaiser was an acclaimed defense attorney, utterly famous and reputable within law circles. He had successfully defended the most severe criminal cases all over the world, eventually spinning the decision even in the unlikeliest and least hopeful of circumstances. Kaiser was featured in many prominent cases worldwide, even consistently making appearances in international courts. He was highly sought after by those who could afford him, and for those who couldn't, he would sometimes take on cases pro-bono. Probably just for a little extra publicity, Cobb mused. And he was almost a hundred percent certain that Kaiser had something to do with the fishy disappearance of Nicholas Leroux.

The captain's voice crackled the usual announcements over the speakers, but Cobb heard none of it as they glided along the rest of the way to the gate.

_What am I doing?_

The question had been swirling in his mind for the entire flight. Ten years of peace and quiet, without a single mention of _that _business, and now this. Two short phone calls from across the planet, one from the mysterious Kaiser and the other from a distressed Ariadne, had been enough to scare him into immediately jumping on the next plane to Europe, and leaving his kids with their grandfather without a second thought.

_Again._

How had he suddenly become so heartless? Hadn't he just dropped James and Philipa off at school, thinking about how much he loved them? And now he was thousands of miles away, without any explanation.

_An "unexpected business trip…"_

They were big now; they could take care of themselves. But Cobb wondered if he would ever forgive himself for making such a rash decision.

_Ariadne needs my help. I owe her._

He jostled his way through the terminal and into the arrival hall, where he immediately saw Ariadne. She looked nervous, anxious, distraught. In all their time on the Fischer mission together, he had never seen her that way. She had always been eager and driven, exuding determination to learn more, to do more.

"Ariadne!"

She turned around and caught sight of him, and they reached out to hug each other for a long moment. What a predicament they were in now compared to the last time he had seen her, in a stunning white dress at her beautiful intimate wedding off the shores of the South of France.

"Thank you for doing this, I can't believe you're here. Like I said, I didn't want to get the police involved." She sounded shaken.

"It's okay. I'm sorry we couldn't meet again under happier circumstances," he admitted apologetically.

The night before, Cobb had called Ariadne back straight away telling her to meet him in Berlin the next day. He had to turn off his phone for takeoff before he could explain any more.

They hailed a cab, and as they drove through Berlin, Cobb filled Ariadne in on the cryptic phone call he had received from a European man earlier the same day, mention of dream-share and inception, and how Saito had given him the name Wolfram Kaiser.

"So where are we going now?" asked Ariadne, her expression fixing into a frown of confusion.

"I found the address of Kaiser's private residency. Trust me, he didn't make it easy, but I got it eventually and we're on our way there now—"

To Cobb's surprise, Ariadne's initial expression of confusion twisted into one of shock and anger.

"So _that's_ your plan? We're just going to—to storm onto this strange man's private _residency_ and just _expect_ him to give Nick back? If this is even where Nick _is_."

Cobb opened his mouth to respond, but words failed him. Ariadne went on.

"Don't get me wrong, Cobb, I'm really glad that you're here. But I thought you'd have something a little more thought-out than this when you told me that you knew what was going on!"

Tense silence hung in the air as Cobb regained his composure. Large dollops of rain splattered on the windows as the cab trundled on through the city. Ariadne was right—how could he have been so stupid to think that this would be a simple task? Kaiser had ulterior motive, all the ulterior motive in the world. People powerful enough to consider dream-share as a solution to their problems were tricky people, complex in nature, deep in thought… what had Saito said?

_"Kaiser is one of the most cunning and clever people I know…"_

Cobb took a deep breath.

"Look. You're right. But based on what Kaiser said yesterday, he wants something from _me_. And I think the best place to start is to go find out what it is that he wants, and take it from there."

Ariadne glared at him for another moment, then sighed.

"I'm sorry for yelling—I know that you're just trying to help. But this is _Nick _we're talking about here. I need him back."

"I know, Ariadne. I know. It's just going to be in and out, we get Nick back, and then we go home and this never happened. Okay?"

At least that was what Cobb was hoping for.


	9. Transformation

CHAPTER 9: Transformation

Cobb and Ariadne stepped out of the cab, looking disheveled—Cobb from the long journey and Ariadne from her rollercoaster of emotions. Despite their bleary eyes and tired bodies, both marched towards the foreboding skyscraper with a detectable sense of drive and fury.

The entire building was an austere tower of stone and marble, its apparent age lending to its severe and intimidating impression. The couple's shoes clipped and clopped on neatly polished marble flooring as they entered the lobby; after requesting a security guard to let them speak with Wolfram Kaiser, the two were led into a cramped elevator that rocketed them towards the top floor hundreds of feet off the ground.

Cobb glanced towards Ariadne and tried to give her a reassuring look, but she was staring upwards determinedly at the small display screen flashing numbers in orange.

The elevator doors slid open to immediately reveal a spacious circular office, with large panels of glass in the place of walls. The rain had stopped, and the sun was now peeking out from behind the clouds to shed light on a magnificent view of the whole city. The interior was luxurious beyond belief: the rich carpeting was paired with plush red velvet couches and impressive mahogany carpentry. In the center of it all sat Wolfram Kaiser, never to be seen without a glass of red wine. He was dressed in what appeared to be an extremely expensive designer suit. His boyish complexion could not hide the inevitable graying around the edges.

"I see you brought the worrying wife," Kaiser said through his thick German accent, nodding towards Ariadne with a coy smile. "How empathetic of you. But now that I have finally convinced you that what I have to say is indeed worth hearing, I would prefer it if you and I had some privacy to discuss my proposition, Mr. Cobb."

"If I stay, she stays," Cobb retorted, unamused.

"If you insist," Kaiser laughed. "Then perhaps I can convince both of you of what is at stake here—an innocent man's life. No, not your husband's," he added to Ariadne, but she continued to look skeptical. "He will be returned to you shortly, if Mr. Cobb here agrees to take up my little proposition."

"Get to the point, Kaiser," Cobb shot.

"What I ask for has never been done before: not to my knowledge, at least. But it is my last resort, otherwise of course I wouldn't have gone to such dire circumstances to… invite you here."

A dramatic pause from Kaiser. After sensing that this had no effect whatsoever on Cobb and Ariadne, he plunged on.

"A British senator named Curtius Michaelson was highly influential within the English government. Unfortunately, he was murdered a month ago under brutal circumstances."

Cobb already did not like the sound of where the situation was going.

"Forensics has made it clear that this was a very carefully thought out ordeal, planned for months down to the most minute detail. Based on their compiled evidence, they have arrested a politician named Oscar Fordham. It's been causing quite a scene over there. This is a very serious case and has been taken straight to the British High Court. The final hearing is in six days, held by the distinguished High Court judge, Sir Augustus Foster."

"And you're Oscar Fordham's defense attorney," interjected Ariadne.

"You catch on, don't you? Yes, I am Oscar Fordham's defense attorney. It has cost me a lot of good alliances, taking him on. But I did so because I truly believe him to be innocent. However, inside sources tell me that Judge Foster is already convinced that Oscar Fordham is a guilty man."

"So what exactly is it that you're asking for?" demanded Cobb.

Kaiser gave him a sly smile.

"Transformation."

Ariadne let out a small gasp of horror. Cobb's face remained stone-cold as he stared Kaiser straight in the eye, but his mind was whirling. After a long pause, Cobb was the first to speak.

"It can't be done."

"Isn't that exactly what you said," said Kaiser, beginning to pace in circles around the two, "when the idea of inception was first brought to your attention?"

"Even inception was nearly impossible—"

"But you made it possible."

"With inception, you're at least starting with a blank slate—if you discount all of the subject's pre-existing prejudices and biases—and planting something new there," said Cobb with increasing defiance. "But when you have a conviction that's already so deeply and firmly rooted in someone's mind, it's going to be impossible to spin that 180 degrees in the opposite direction _and _make it convincing. Memory and opinion are both extremely powerful things—"

"But surely not _immutable_, Mr. Cobb? For example, I could easily change your mind right now. I trust you haven't forgotten about your little friend, Mr. Nicholas Leroux? Don't worry," he said to Ariadne as he noticed her look of distress, "I won't keep him with me much longer. I daresay you shall reunite with him very soon. He has served his purpose—in helping bring you here, Mr. Cobb. After all, despite the paradoxical nature of my work, I still toil with the weight of justice on my shoulders, and I would not keep an innocent and harmless man captive for no good reason."

"So what's in it for you, then? And for us?" inquired Cobb.

"No, Cobb… you can't seriously be considering this…" Ariadne whispered to him.

"At the end of the day, I am still a lawyer," declared Kaiser. "I wish to uphold justice. Seeing an innocent man walk free is all I ask for. And for you—well, I trust that your friend here will be glad to have her husband back. I've also heard through the grapevine that Southgate Security isn't doing too well. Boring, isn't it, dealing with vapid celebrities all day? Why not rise to a challenge? Why not come back to the thrill of the dream?"

Cobb hesitated.

"How do you know that Oscar Fordham didn't murder the senator?" Ariadne asked.

"I'm good at what I do, Mrs. Leroux. I feel it, like a powerful tug. In here." Kaiser patted his chest. "And I'm sure careful reconsideration of the events of the crime will also reveal as much. But with the trial so soon, I doubt that the existing evidence will be enough to sway Judge Foster. Which is where Mr. Cobb comes in."

"Don't you care about finding out who actually did it?" she pressed on.

"My most immediate concern at the moment is Mr. Fordham's well-being," replied Kaiser gravely. "Senator Curtius Michaelson is already dead, and will continue to be dead. His murderer will continue to be out there somewhere, to be caught someday. But Oscar Fordham's time is running out. So _that's _what in it for you and for me—justice."

Cobb was starting to see a slight glimmer of purpose in this seemingly deranged man. What he did with Nick was still unforgivable—the extreme methods he used to lure him to Berlin—but something in Cobb yearned again for the adventure, for the challenge. Every fiber in his body was telling him not to, to put his children first, to reunite Nick and Ariadne and then go home, to pretend none of this had happened: just as he had intended. Hadn't he just been cursing himself for leaving the kids behind again? His soul, however, was telling him something else.

Long ago, Cobb too was once wrongfully accused of a murder he did not commit. It had haunted him for years, preventing him from returning home, keeping him away from his two beloved children. Mal had been a crazy woman, but elegantly so, framing it all so perfectly against him. If someone had swooped in last minute and saved him from the agony her insanity had cost him, if someone had cleared his name, no matter how it had been done, he would have been eternally grateful. If even one person could have placed blind faith in his pleas of innocence, then perhaps he could have had a fighting chance. And now he could be that just that for Oscar Fordham.

Another long pause.

"I'll do it."

Ariadne's face fell. Wolfram Kaiser nodded in approval. He reached over and handed Cobb a thick manila envelope and a small stack of files.

"Here is everything you'll need. And Mr. Nicholas Leroux is waiting for you downstairs in the lobby."

Cobb nodded resolutely.

"Assemble your team, Mr. Cobb. And choose wisely."

_Déjà vu_ sent a chill down Cobb's spine. Clutching the papers, he stepped back into the elevator with a shaken Ariadne, and it sent them spiraling back down to the ground floor. As they descended he pulled out his phone and began to dial.

"Who are you calling?" asked Ariadne.

"Arthur and Eames. Oh, and we're probably going to need Yusuf as well."

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The reunion is underway! In fact, the next chapter will be named "Reunion". No joke. Thanks for sticking around if you've made it all the way here. Reviews, favs, follows are always good signs to keep it going.


	10. Reunion

_I keep forgetting that I wrote this FanFic and always revisit it after months and months at a time! It's awful of me, I know. I already have the next few chapters written so if you want to see more definitely leave any thoughts and comments in the reviews, or let me know with a fav/ follow. _

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CHAPTER 10: Reunion

Cobb, Ariadne, and Nick sat in a six-star hotel room, enjoying their breakfasts of room service—or at least, to the extent at which they could enjoy anything, given the circumstances. They were staying in one of Ariadne's architectural masterpieces, a special commission for a hotel in London, so everything was free of charge and all the staff had practically been kissing their shoes as soon they found out that the architect of the place was coming to stay.

Just as Kaiser had promised, Nick had been waiting after their meeting with him. Nick was a little worse for wear, definitely shaken from the whole experience, but lit up at the sight of Ariadne. Cobb watched as they pulled each other into a passionate embrace, and his heart warmed at the prospect of their reunion, then quickly dimmed again at his own insane longing for adventure and the dream world. They were back at Berlin's Tegel Airport when Ariadne finally confronted him.

"Look, Cobb, I don't know why you want to do this so badly, and personally I would very much like to go home and forget this all happened—"

"And I'm not stopping you from doing so," Cobb replied.

"But… Nick and I have talked it over."

Nick nodded in agreement, and started rambling.

"It's been years and years since either of us have gone into dream space. But if you're really dead set on doing this crazy… transformation thing, then we'd rather make sure that you have friends on your side and that… you're not going at this alone."

"With your stupid, stubborn mind…" Ariadne added under her breath.

"And it's the least I could do to thank you for coming all the way to Berlin to make sure I was okay—"

"What Nick is saying," interjected Ariadne, "is that we could either get on the next plane to Paris or go home, but only if you'd be hopping on the next flight to LA. Either that or… we all go to London together and clear Oscar Fordham's name."

That had been yesterday. Now they were sitting in their London hotel room. Cobb still sensed something coming from Ariadne, but couldn't quite pinpoint what it was. Animosity? Annoyance? In any case, it was too late now. They were waiting for the others to arrive, and it would be any moment.

There was a loud knock at the door, and Nick jumped up to answer it. In strolled Arthur and Eames, each sporting healthy tans and rough muscles from their time with the military.

"It's been a while," Arthur remarked with a smile as he walked over to Cobb.

"You could say that," Cobb said, a grin spreading over his face. They couldn't help but give each other a big hug. Arthur gave Ariadne a generous hug as well, and Cobb thought he saw Nick's eyes shift uncomfortably, but brushed it off and pretended not to notice.

Eames flopped down onto the bed, and immediately started taking Ariadne's food.

"Glad to be home. God bless Great Britain. Who's this?" Eames asked through a thick mouthful of biscuit, pointing his cup of tea towards Nick.

"This is my husband, Nick. Nicholas Leroux," explained Ariadne, and a round of introductions were exchanged.

"I see you've done pretty well for yourself, he's a catch," whispered Arthur to Ariadne, and she jabbed him playfully with her elbow, then quickly retracted.

"You've done pretty well for yourself too, with those rock-hard abs," she teased.

Meanwhile, Eames was fascinated by Nick's line of work.

"Nicholas Leroux? You don't… you don't happen to be in the movie business?"

That launched them into a long discussion about Nick's directing and film work. Cobb decided that it was time to refocus.

"Everyone! Now, I know we're all happy to see each other, but there's work to be done."

"He's right," said Eames. "So, what's the run-down? What's the big mission?"

Ariadne whirled around to face Cobb.

"Cobb, you didn't _tell _them? You didn't tell them everything before they got here?"

"There wasn't time!" he said defensively.

But deep down, Cobb knew he had partially tricked his friends into coming here. Ten years without seeing each other, with the last time being inception… if he had told them the truth, the whole entire story before any of them got here, he knew it was highly unlikely that he'd have any sort of team at this point.

Ariadne wasn't done.

"Ten years Cobb, ten years, you'd think that you learned something. Isn't this exactly what happened last time, you sent us down there with no warning and we almost all got screwed over into limbo—"

"Come on, Cobb. Spit it out," pressed Arthur.

After he was done explaining everything that had happened over the past two days, a pregnant silence hung in the air. It lasted an eternity. Cobb could feel every mind in the room whirring wildly with an array of thoughts and emotions. Arthur was the one who finally spoke up.

"Transformation? Are you out of your mind? You keep pulling us into these impossible situations—"

"_Not _impossible," interrupted Cobb.

"Hold on," said Eames. "Don't mean to sound selfish or anything, but what's in it for us? I mean… Nick is clearly here, alive and well. This guy, Kaiser, he's got no more leverage. Who's to say that Ariadne and Nick can't just fly back to Paris?"

"He could always come back and do the same thing again," reasoned Ariadne. "Kaiser taking Nick was just a small taste of the type of power he has. I don't think any of us are safe until we've carried out this job, or until Kaiser knows that we at least tried."

Cobb finally understood the emotional wall he had felt between them earlier. Ariadne didn't want the job at all. She was simply acting out of fear, cooperating with him to prevent her husband—who, admittedly, had nothing to do with the whole inception scheme—from being taken away from her again. And, the more he thought about it, the more he realized that she was right. Wolfram Kaiser had made Cobb feel like a good person. He had made Cobb think that the goal of transformation was _justice. _He had tapped into Cobb's personal story of being wrongfully convicted of murder once, used it to appeal to his empathy: when really, Wolfram Kaiser probably just wanted to win another case.

But at the same time, Cobb was feeling a curious tug, a powerful tug, like the one the tricky defense attorney had mentioned. It was a powerful tug in his chest of what was right and what had to be done.

"Ariadne's right," Cobb said. "He's making it look like we have a choice, but we really don't." He decided to leave out his strange sense of justice.

Eames was still perplexed.

"Look, if we do this—if we really do this—it's messing with the law. And I know we've done that before, but isn't this an obstruction of justice? We know that Kaiser is trying to sway a judge. What's stopping us from taking that to the police and getting the guy locked up?"

"Eames, if we don't do the job, he's going to come after us, locked up or not," stated Arthur with a sense of finality. "And do you think anyone will take us seriously when we start taking about dreams? Besides, it's been a while since we've all had a bit of a challenge. I'm interested to see how we run with this."

Cobb took one last look around at all the faces in the room.

"Alright. So. Everyone in?"

No one uttered a word of disagreement. There didn't seem to be much choice in the matter.

"Great," said Cobb. "Now let's go get Yusuf."


End file.
